A Little Island No One Knows ~Private Diary 2008-2015~

Artist Profile

• Ginji Ogawa

  Ginji Ogawa began playing the guitar at the age of 17. After extensive work as a session musician he formed his first band, "Nezumi Kozo" In July of 1976 he went on to form the band "CROSSWIND" which developed a reptation for creating highly imaginatie, progressive music. "CROSSWIND" began touring successfully and, after taking first prize in a major music competition, got the attention of Japan's mass media. In 1978 the band made their major debut with their first album "CROSSWIND". This was quickly followed by "CROSSWIND II" in 1979. It was around this time that Ginji also began to participate in a variety of other musical projects. Ginji performed with "Zone", "The Carmen Maki Band" and "Quyz" but it was his meeting with the artists Kiyoshiro and Chabo the led to his becoming one of the most influential guitarists on the Japanese rock scene. The band the created, "RC SUCCESSION", went on to become a truly pioneering force in the creation of pure Japanese rock'n roll. The next two years saw Ginji split his time between "RC SUCCESSION" and "CROSSWIND" but the workload became too much; leading him to quit "RC SUCCESSION" to concentrate on his own band. In 1982 "CROSSWIND" released their third album, "Soshite Yume No Kuni E". Then they contributed 4 songs to the sound track of the successful feature film, "Oretachi No Ikita Toki". In 1984, "CROSSWIND" broke up as the members went their separate ways to pursue independent projects. Between 1985 and 1986 he divided the band he was working on into three separate entities. "The Ogawa Ginji Band", "the-Orchestra" and "Ogawa Ginji & Inner-WIND". At the same time he started recording a solo album. 1991 saw Ginji reappear on the recording scene big time with the release of the albums "Private Pieces1986-1987" and "Inner-WIND". This was quickly followed by the release of "Inner-WIND II". In 1993 the band "Inner-WIND" broke up and Ginji spent the next two years touring as a solo act. Throughout this period he was constantly recording material at his private studio, eventually putting together a catalog of approximately 400 songs. Carefully editing this material, he created a twelve CD set and on May 23rd, 2001 he released all twelve at the same time under the title, "MUSIC/Private Diary". No other musician in the world had ever successfully released twelve CDs of new material at the same time. Ginji used this event as the impetus to establish his own record company, "POWER RECORD". This 12 CD release created quite a stir both at home and abroad, reaching as far as the offices of "The Guinness Book of Records". In response to an application for placement in the next edition, the editors replied that although they had never been approached with this kind of record before, they would give careful consideration to the creation of a new category to cover this recording industry first. On July 28th, 2001 Ginji started working with a new version of "The Ogawa Ginji Band" and their debut concert at the famed PIT-INN in Roppongi, Tokyo was a tremendous, full-house success. To date, Ogawa Ginji continues to tour Japan with his band while appearing regularly in magazine and on TV. He sums up his approach to life this way, "I'm a little too young to die but I know I'll never be old to play the guitar !" And, he also says, "Shut up'n play yer guitar !"

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